Dear Magda,
We *know* growth spurts result in an increase in growth because often
they result in a heftier weight gain than usual. A mother who is having
her baby's weight gain monitored often notices this, after the fact, of
course, i.e. they call and ask what is happening, you suggest it might
be a growth spurt and encourage them to follow the baby's lead (taking
the baby to bed to facilitate more frequent nursing) and they phone the
next week to tell you that hey, the weight gain that was normally 5 oz.
was 8 last week. Even if you are not monitoring weight gain, output
improves. Bowel movements are often more frequent and yellower. So our
judgment that it is a growth spurt seems to be accurate.
Incidentally, even a baby who is breastfeeding very frequently can go
through these growth spurts, although instead of wanting to BF more
frequently (if he is already BF every hour or so his frequency is hard
to surpass) the mother may just sense that he is hungrier. If this
happens in an older baby, for instance, she may feel he is "nursing like
a newborn" -- she is having stronger letdowns, she can hear or see or
feel more swallowing, etc. during each feed. After solids are
introduced, mothers still report the kind of growth spurt that changes
BF patterns, even if the baby does not seem to want more solids.
Question for you lactnetters: someone told me growth spurts occur every
couple of months or so in the second and third years. Do we have any
references on this? I know it is hard to talk about anything "typical"
about iconoclastic-by-definition toddlers, but (it must be a good sign!)
I'm getting a lot more toddler questions, and don't want to just go by
my own experience. What happens to those toddlers who only BF morning,
nap, evening and night? (never had one of those). Do they change their
habits?
Jo-Anne
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